Picking up from where I left off, here’s part 2 of my little collection! I had to hunt down for decent pictures of stars in diamond themed jewelry. Most of these below were jewelries worn at the recent 2008 Oscar.

Enjoy!

Ali Landry

Ali Landry looks absolutely stunning in this picture. Her earrings adds to her already glamorous look.

Adrienne Frantz

Another cool earring design worn by Adrienne Frantz

Jennifer Gardner

Jennifer wearing a diamond necklace similar to that of Sophia Lauren’s necklace in the previous post…just the ‘tamer’ version, haha. (I have to add that Jen looks a tad ‘old’ in this picture)

Jessica Alba

Love the earrings (very medieval princess like look she has)

Matching bracelet worn by Jessica Alba

Katherine Heigl

A bit of a Marilyn Monroe look there. Classy with the interesting hooped earrings

$6 MILLION??? I am still amazed by how much these stones can fetch. I mean at one end, my thoughts will be “It’s JUST A STONE!” while on the other end it will go “Wowwww….6 Million…..what can I get with 6 Million….” Hahaha

It’s crazy to see how much companies or individuals are willing to pay for a ‘stone’ really….

Here’s the latest update from the diamond industry!

New York—The Ponahalo Diamonds, the two stones cut from a 316.15-carat piece of rough mined in South Africa, sold for more than $6 million at a Christie’s auction held on Wednesday in New York City.

The buyer, Amer Radwan of Radwan Diamond and Jewelry Trading in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, paid $4.11 million for the 102.11-carat Ponahalo diamond, while the smaller stone, weighing in at 70.87 carats, sold for $2.15 million.

Lesotho I diamond

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Ponahalo Diamonds, which were cut by the Steinmetz Diamond Group, will go to the Diamond Empowerment Fund (DEF), the non-profit organization co-founded by music mogul Russell Simmons that uses diamond profits to educate and empower Africans.

“I’m extremely pleased at the way this initiative for educating and empowering Africans through the sale of diamonds is taking off,” Simmons said in a media release. “We are thankful to Steinmetz for choosing the Diamond Empowerment Fund and, through the DEF, the students at the Maharishi Institute for this great gift.”

The Ponahalo diamonds are the world’s largest Forevermark stones. Forevermark is the diamond brand recently launched by De Beers.

The stones were the highlight of Christie’s “Jewels: The New York Sale” and “Superb 20th Century Jewels from an American Collection” sales, held on Wednesday in New York City.

The sales totaled $29.4 million.

Other notable gems sold include a rectangular-cut 7.02-carat fancy-intense blue diamond for $3.61 million and a pear-shaped 5.6-carat fancy-intense purplish-pink diamond ring, which Alisa Moussaieff purchased for $2.71 million.

As Christie’s winds down from the sale of the Ponahalo Diamonds, Sotheby’s is preparing for its “Magnificent Jewels” sale, scheduled for Nov. 19 at the Beau-Rivage Hotel in Geneva.

Included in the sale will be the famous Lesotho I diamond, an emerald-cut 71.73-carat diamond cut from the 601-carat piece of rough mined in the 1960s in the African kingdom of Lesotho.

This is the first time the stone—which was cut by famed jewelry house Harry Winston—has been offered at auction since the present owner purchased it from Harry Winston himself.

RAJKOT: Finally we can forget the Kohinoor. One of the costliest and biggest rough diamonds from South African mines has found its way into Gujarat.

The 128.47-carat rough diamond worth $12.13 million (Rs 58-60 crore) is bigger than the 105-carat round-cut Kohinoor diamond, which is part of the famed British crown jewels.

And after a little bit of cut and polish, the de-coloured and flawless rough diamond, mined from Orange River (South Africa), is expected to turn into 50 carat of pure glitter, chairman of Surat-based KARP Impex Kishore Virani told ET.KARP won the bid to buy the diamond from South Africa (SA) and claims that it is the costliest and the largest piece of rough diamond that has ever come an Indian company’s way. And it would take four months for the company to get it ready for the market. And KARP is also planning to get the diamond insured, Virani said.

A DTC site holder, KARP gets steady supply of rough diamonds from South Africa, but in case of such rare pieces, bids are invited from all DTC site holders before auction. “We bagged the costliest rough diamond by quoting the best price against other contenders from Israel and Belgium,” said Keval Virani from KARP. The auction was held in Tender House in South Africa, known for diamond auctions.

But diamonds are not new to Gujarat. The Rs 60,000-crore Surat diamond industry is the hotbed of the global diamond industry, processing around 70% of world’s rough diamonds. But Chandrakant Sanghvi of Sanghi Exports said this is the first time that such a precious diamond has landed in the sub-continent. “Until now, polished diamonds ranging from 10-25 carat were heard of. But, a 50-carat polished diamond is probably the first of its kind,” he said.

The Indian diamond cutting and polishing industry has enough technology and required skill to cut these large pieces given the industry can afford to purchase such higher cost rough diamonds. But Indians are mainly known for cutting and polishing smaller sized rough diamonds, he added.

The costliest diamond that reached Surat 15-20 days back might see the development of new machine tools for cutting and polishing. Kishore Virani, with more than 30 years experience in diamond industry and a partner with the leading machine tool maker of the state expects to minimise the risk with the expertise and technical know-how of its own machine tools. “Although no particular marketing strategy has been decided, we are chalking out the strategies on naming the diamond,” said Mr Virani.

The total exports of gems and jewellery items during April 2007 to March 2008 stood at Rs 84,058.19 crore against Rs 77,100.12 crore in April 2006-March 07, a growth of 9.02%.

The new found diamond is definitely making waves in the Diamond World…..just take a look at how the experts are raving about its color and quality….

Hahaha, it really reminds me of a child who found Candyland….the excitement I mean :)

Huge Diamond Hailed as Record Breaker:

(I like the combo! lol)

A diamond unearthed in the southern African nation of Lesotho could yield one of the largest and highest quality round polished diamonds, according to a statement Monday from company that found it.

Experts in Antwerp, Belgium who analyzed the 478-carat stone determined it to be of the highest color grading available for a white diamond, said a statement from Gem Diamonds Ltd., the company that found the stone.

“What makes it more remarkable is the color and quality of this stone,” said diamond consultant Neil Buxton.

“It’s a D color, which is the highest possible graded color you can get, and we believe there is a chance — a very good chance — of getting a 100-carat plus” round stone with the highest color and clarity rankings.

The company said such a stone would “to the best of our knowledge” be “the first one in history.”

The diamond, which was found in September, ranks as the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, but is not the biggest ever taken from the Letseng Mine, which is co-owned by Gem Diamonds Ltd. and the Kingdom of Lesotho, a country of 2.1 million that is surrounded by South Africa.

Two bigger stones — 603 and 493 carats — were found in the mine in 2006 and 2007, respectively, the company said. A 601-carat diamond was mined there in 1960, it said.